Jessica Cooper with her daughter. Submitted photo

NORWAY — Jessica Cooper, youth coordinator at the Center for an Ecology Based Economy (CEBE) in Norway, is teaming up with other youth across the state to create a film that brings to center stage the stories of Maine youth advocating for solutions to accelerating climate change. For the film, Cooper, an artist and musician, is helping to create the storyline and recruit storytellers from every county, who will reflect the diversity of ages, cultural/racial/social backgrounds, and gender identities that define Maine’s youth climate movement today.

“Our film team is also looking for a youth composer/musician to score the film and a youth graphic artist to create artwork for the screenings and presentations planned for 2021,” Cooper said. “Any youth from Oxford County who has a climate story to tell or would like to be considered for composer or graphic artist, may contact me at CEBE or the film producer Down to Earth Storytelling.”

Down to Earth Storytelling, a Maine-based organization that has created films featuring the stories of Maine climate justice activists and the solutions they have inspired, can be reached at downtoearth145@gmail.com or 207-380-5387. The youth-led film, partly funded by a grant from the Eleanor Humes Haney Fund, is scheduled for completion in December 2020.

Cooper, a native of the foothills of western Maine, joined the film advisory team “because I felt I could offer the perspective of a young mother.” Most of the young people Cooper works with through her job at CEBE are high school or college students, some of them her own age. But she feels that even though their work is the same, her role is slightly different.

“It’s scary trying to navigate a changing world while keeping in mind constantly the change that will occur over not only my lifetime, but also my young daughter’s lifetime.” Cooper said. “It adds a whole new layer to the urgency of the work to be done…It has to be about creating a better future, for my daughter, for future generations and for people living in Maine now who are on the absolute frontlines of the very real climate crisis.”

Participating on the film advisory team with Cooper are high school and college students from Bar Harbor, Fryeburg, Bangor area, Hollis, Waldoboro and the Penobscot Indian Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe.